To The Stars and Back
by NikkiM95
Summary: Follow Elara, the doctor's newest mystery, as they travel the universe and discover who she really is.
1. Good Feeling?

**A/N: Had an idea and had to write it down. Let me know what you think.**

Chapter 1

Elara hated her job; as a child she'd dreamed of working in a clothes shop, getting to work on tills and help people pick out new clothes. But in reality, it was beyond boring. She'd took the job when she'd left school as a way to get a bit of money and was so excited to have her first job. She'd felt like she was finally an adult. Now, three years later she hated the idea of work.

But today, she had a good feeling about work. She'd awoken before her alarm, skipped down to the kitchen and smiled cheerfully to her mother. Sharon watched her unusually cheerful daughter as she bounced around the kitchen; never on a weekend was she so happy to go to work.

"What's gotten into you?" she asked as her daughter went about making a cup of coffee.

"I have a good feeling about today. Something epic is going to happen, I can feel it."

Sharon gazed curiously at her daughter; Elara had always been intuitive, even as a toddler she'd been unusually instinctual. Ever since Elara had adopted her, the bubbly bouncy four month old, Sharon had notice things about Elara that wasn't exactly normal.

The first indicator was how advanced she had been. At nine months old, Elara was walking and talking when other babies had months until they even crawled. The second was that her daughter never got ill; nineteen years later Elara had yet to suffer from the common cold.

Third was her amazing intelligence, it had occurred to Sharon that maybe she should have Elara IQ tested, she was so intelligent. She'd passed every test she'd been handed, advancing beyond her years. Fourth was how much older Elara was, mentally, compared to other kids her age. She had already planned what she wanted to do when she grew up by the age of five and was dedicated to becoming a primary school teacher ever since.

Sharon was in awe of her daughter but sometimes she did wonder about her. When she started the adoption process for Elara, she had been told that Elara had been found by a good Samaritan in the middle of a field in a farming part of Kent. The only identification she had was a delicate gold chair with the name 'Elara' hanging from her neck. They had no idea how she'd gotten there and had rushed her to the hospital in fear she'd had hypothermia. Once she'd been examined and test had been done, the doctors had discovered alarming differences between Elara and a normal human being. Sharon however did not care; she didn't even ask what they had discovered, she'd never needed to as Elara had never been ill.

When she'd found out she was unable to have children, the one thing she'd wanted the most, she had been devastated. And then, Elara came into her life and she could have been an alien and Sharon wouldn't have cared, she'd just wanted a child. Which was why she'd never pursued the mystery of the doctor's discovery.

As Elara grew older, Sharon grew more and more unsure whether she was correct in keeping her 'suspected' differences from her daughter. When Elara was younger she had decided it was the correct thing to do; she didn't want her bubbly daughter to feel like an alien or be scared of how others would preserve her differences. Sharon didn't want her daughter to be in fear of being herself. She'd felt she was protecting her daughter. Her husband, Joshua, had been as equally disregarding as Sharon had but disagreed with her about keeping it a secret for so long. He'd felt that at sixteen she'd had the right to know.

Sharon however dreaded the day questions were asked.

* * *

Elara skipped into work, smiling widely at her manager who'd opened the door for her. She continued smiling throughout the day, grinning and cheerily greeting all customers that came her way. When Elara returned from her break she found the staff in a gossiping flurry. It was a usual quiet day in the small retail shop so she didn't expect something too big to have happened

"What's going on?" she asked Claire, one of her colleagues. Claire became animated, hands flying around as she spoke excitedly.

"Have you seen who's walked in? It's Amy Pond!"

"The model?" Elara asked, her eyes scanning the shop floor.

"Duh! I'm going to see if she wants some help, you know like a personal shopper. Maybe she'd hire me." Elara rolled her eyes.

In Elara's opinion, Amy Pond was just like another person who happens to have a high paying job that puts her in the public eye. She bet even Amy Pond wasn't fond of the attention, after all she grew up in a small town in the north.

Claire came running back, a defeated look on her face.

"She said she was fine. She had her husband with her and some other man, probably her agent." Again Elara rolled her eyes at Claire. Time Past and before she knew it, Claire was flapping excitedly as Amy Pond headed towards the till bank.

Claire made her way towards the till excitedly, only to be pulled back by the manager, who raised an eyebrow at Claire and sighed.

"I'm sorry Claire but I think you are too excited to serve this particular customer. Elara, you seem to be keeping your cool, you serve." Claire stamped her foot and began to sulk like a child as Elara made her way to the first till.

The two men accompanying Amy were loaded with clothing, moaning to each other about being 'pack mules'. Elara couldn't help but giggle at their complaining, finding it highly amusing how Amy carried on, leaving the men to carry her items with a large smile on her face. It was obvious she was enjoying herself.

"You know Pond, I agreed to take you shopping because you kept complaining but Satan nine is waiting, we don't have long or we'll miss it." The man with the dark hair grumbled. Elara's gaze was drawn to the man; she found him attractive but that wasn't what drew her to him. There was something different about him, she could just feel it.

"Hey, you don't hear Rory complaining." Amy fired back.

"That's because he's your husband, he knows better." Rory stared at the man with wide eyes.

"Don't involve me in this!" Rory exclaimed. Amy chuckled at her husband's reaction as she took handfuls of clothing from the men and placed them on a till point.

"He's only complaining because he wants to play with his motor." Amy said to Rory over her shoulder. She leant over the till towards me and stage whispered "He's adamant he ain't like normal blokes but he so is." Elara chuckled as she continued to scan Amy's items and place them in the bag.

"Don't complain to me, I'll drop you off in Leadworth if it bothers you so much. I'm sure I wouldn't have any trouble finding someone to travel with me." Amy spun to face her friend with horror on her face. His eyes glowed with amusement at her expression.

"I'm not complaining! Besides Doctor, who else'll want to travel with a mad man like you. " Amy glared at him before turning back to face me.

"You're a doctor?" I asked as a way to change the subject. The man locked eyes with me and watched me curiously.

"No. But people call me The Doctor." Weird, Elara thought. 'The Doctor' continued to gaze at her, his eyes flashing to her name tag.

"That's an unusual name, Elara." She nodded and looked up at him. She gazed at the Doctor's eyes and was shocked what she found there; for someone so young his eyes where that of someone so old. This 'Doctor' what seen a lot.

"I was adopted, and was found in a field with my name on a necklace." Amy gasped, Rory and The Doctor's mouth fell open in shock.

"Were you okay?" Rory asked after he'd gotten over the shock.

"I was a baby but Mum tells me I was fine. I'm over it."

Elara's Mum had told her she had been adopted from the age of fourteen; she'd had a class project about autobiographies and had to take in her birth certificate. Sharon however didn't have a proper birth certificate for Elara as there was no record of Elara being born. Sharon and Joshua had sat Elara down and had explained, briefly, about how she'd been found. Elara however couldn't have cared less if she'd been found in a bin bag, she had the best parents any orphan could want.

"Didn't anyone think that was weird?" The Doctor asked, curiosity peaked.

"Well I guess. Never thought about it really." Elara replied honestly.

"Did you know you're named after a moon?" The Doctor asked, his curiosity growing. He had only met her less than five minutes ago, but already Elara had captured his curiosity. Of course he'd also found her very pleasing on the eye but the time lord in him told him something wasn't quite as it seemed about Elara.

She'd been found in a field as a baby and no-one, not even herself, questioned it. The doctor couldn't wait to get back to the TARDIS and do a bit of digging. Her name was a little warning bell for The Doctor; not many humans knew the name of the eighth largest moon of Jupiter. Not many humans knew that Jupiter has more than one moon.

"Really? No I didn't." Elara exclaimed, her interest peaked. She loved to learn something new; her brain was like a sponge that couldn't stop sucking up information, it was never happy.

"Yes, it's a Jupiter's prograde irregular satellites of Jupiter." The Doctor informed her, ecstatic that she'd seemed to be pleased with the knowledge.

"I bet you have a PhD in Space and Planetary sciences and that's why you're called Doctor and know so much about space." Elara guessed, she thought it was now an easy connection to make once you knew more about 'The Doctor'.

"You are correct. You're too clever to work in a retails shop." The Doctor complimented, his curiosity increasing. Who was this girl? He thought as he watched her.

"I read a lot." Elara replied, her cheeks staining red at the compliment.

"Okay, if you've finished flirting Doctor, I'm ready to go." Amy said, her eyes glowing with mirth as her haze flew from me to the Doctor and back. The Doctor glared at Amy; why did she always have to assume he was flirting, he thought, he couldn't help it if he was naturally charming.

"I was not flirting, I was having a casual conversation with someone I had just met." The Doctor felt his cheeks burn. He had to admit, even to himself, he could help but be in awe of Elara's beauty and that it contributed to his growing curiosity in her but nothing would come about it. He'd probably never see her again. Unless he digs up something alarming or interesting about Elara back at the TARDIS.

"I hope you have a nice day, it was nice to meet you." Elara said cheerfully as Amy collected her bags and shared them equally between her husband and the Doctor.

"And you Elara." The doctor replied as he made his way towards the exit.

"Thanks." Amy said as she linked arms with her husband and followed after the Doctor. He couldn't resist a glance back, just to check that the mystery of Elara actually existed. He smiled broadly at her before turning and finally leaving the store.

"What were they like?" Claire practically squealed as she bounced towards Elara and just like that, Elara's good day went downhill. Claire was like a pinball with a bone and Elara knew she would not shake of Claire and her questions for the rest of the day, a week at the most.

She couldn't wait for home time.

* * *

"Can you believe there is nothing on this Elara girl anywhere? She doesn't even have a birth certificate. Something is not right, I knew it, I could feel it. The only thing I found was an old newspaper report about her being found in that field and a plea for her parents to come forward. Apart from a few school records and a bank account, this Elara Daniels doesn't exist."

The Doctor continued to stare at the screen before him. It didn't make sense to him. Maybe she was an alien or maybe she was just one of those unfortunate humans, but there was something in the Doctor that told him that he could not let this go. And he was very rarely wrong.

"Maybe her birth certificate got lost or she just wasn't registered. Her parents obviously didn't want her so the latter is probably the most likely." Amy said, trying to ease the Doctor's obvious frustration.

"Maybe." The Doctor said, however he didn't agree. He needed to get to know more about this 'Elara'.


	2. On Second's thought, RUN!

**A/N: hey guys, I'm really enjoying this story and hope you are too. Keep the reviews coming in. I own nothing however the planet idea is completely mine. **

**Chapter 2**

The next day the Doctor observed Elara from afar. He studied her as she worked while he hid behind the racks of clothing. So far he hadn't seen anything that would indicate she was anything other than normal. And, he thought, maybe she was just that, normal.

He'd been spying on her for hours, watching as she spoke politely with customers, ducking when she came near to discovering him. The more he watched her, the more he grew to like Elara, she seemed to be perfect. She was clever, beautiful, kind, caring, the list was endless.

"You know, I could have you arrested for stalking." Elara whispered in the Doctor's ear. Startled that Elara had snuck up on her, The Doctor jumped forward, clumsily knocking over the gondola of clothing. Elara chuckled at his clumsiness.

"Elara?" he squeaked. "I was just picking up some items for Amy." He rambled. How could he have took his eyes off her and let himself get caught.

"I find it hard to believe she didn't finer everything she wanted yesterday." Elara replied with amusement, her lips pulling into a smile as she watched him become flustered.

"Fine, I was curious about you." He scratched his cheek nervously before crossing his arm over his chest.

"You know, people, especially women, prefer conversation to stalking." She was finding this too funny.

"Well you are working, I didn't want to get you into trouble." He rubbed his hands together is he gazed around, trying to avoid eye contact with Elara.

"So, you wanted to talk?" Elara asked, her curiosity peaked as she took her time to observe the Doctor.

"Erm, well, yes." He flustered, scratching his cheek again. "I was wondering if you, maybe, fancied, coming somewhere with me." Elara eyed him suspiciously.

"Right. Erm…" Elara didn't know what to make of the Doctor's offer. She had only met him yesterday and that was only for a brief ten minutes. She didn't felt the Doctor would ever cause her any harm; she didn't know why she felt that way but she did. But should she go out with the Doctor. How old was he anyway?

"You don't have too. I was just curious and I think you'd like where I was planning on taking you."

The Doctor knew he sounded slightly creepy, after all he was trying to lure her onto his TARDIS but he did have a good reason. He wanted to find out exactly what was different about her, what about her peaked his interest. Besides it would be nice to have someone else to talk to while Amy and Rory were off doing whatever they do. Quickly, he tried to think of something to say to make him not seem like he was trying to kidnap her.

"You see, I'm new to town and the only people I know is Amy and Rory and sometimes I feel like a third wheel, is that the right phase? I'm not really sociable but yesterday you seemed clever and I know sometimes I ramble about sciency stuff and my brain runs away with me and…" he paused as he noticed the amused expression on Elara's face. She had found it incredibly adorable that all the Doctor wanted was someone to chat to.

"Okay. I finish work at four. I'll meet you outside them." The Doctor's eyes light up at his success. He can't wait to see her reaction to the TARDIS.

"Okay. I'll see you then." The Doctor exclaimed, nearly jumping with joy. Elara walked away shaking her head as she wondered what she'd gotten herself into.

* * *

"You won't believe what I'm about to show you." The doctor said as he pulled Elara along the path toward his blue police box.

Elara was sceptical as she took in her surroundings. The Doctor had led her to a small park not far away from where she works in the town centre. The area was deserted on the Sunday evening but there was a noticeable change. A tall blue police box that Elara was positive that it hadn't been there before.

She didn't say a word as they grew closer to the box. She wasn't really sure what to expect to happen next as the Doctor produced a key from his checkered tweed jacket and placed it into the lock.

It took Elara a second to realise what she saw inside couldn't be possible. It was bigger on the inside. But that was impossible. She stared around, her eyes growing wide as she took everything in; from the gold coloured walls to the large control panel in the centre. Turning back to the Doctor, she noticed the large grin on his lips.

"Aren't you glad you came?" he said, spinning around and heading towards the control panel, pressing a lot of buttons. "Where do you want to go? Whole of space and time outside those doors and you get to choose where next." Elara stared at him as if he was completely insane.

"You know, I've spent the last four hours searching for you in this maze. You could have at least left us a…" Amy's voice cut short suddenly as she walked into the control room, Rory trailing behind her. Her eyes widened as they flicked from the Doctor to Elara. "Oh hello." Amy muttered curiously as she made her way to the Doctor. "I didn't think you were serious yesterday about replacing is." She hissed, her sadness evident in her voice as she smacked him on the arm.

"Ow! I wasn't. You're still here aren't ya?" The Doctor exclaimed as he ribbed his arm.

"For now." Amy said pouting.

"I'm confused. Am I dreaming?" Elara asked, finally getting over the shock.

"No Elara, I can assure you that you are not dreaming. Why would you be dreaming of me anyway, we hardly know each other. That would be incredibly weird." The doctor rambled.

"This can't be real! I mean its…"

"Bigger on the inside, yeah, I get that lot." The Doctor cut her off as he walked up to her and leant against the rail beside her. "Go on, tell me what you think, don't be shy." Elara took another astonished look around, there was just too much to take in. How did the Doctor not go insane with curiosity overload.

"It's just… beyond words. It's…I want to say amazing but I don't quite think that covers it." The doctor chuckles.

"I know." The doctor exclaimed. He always enjoyed this part of introducing the TARDIS, sometimes it was refreshing, to see someone else's reaction to something he'd gotten used to for the last nine hundred odd years.

"So, you're coming with us now?" Amy asked for clarification.

"Coming with you where?" Elara asked, eyeing Amy and the Doctor suspiciously.

"Where ever you like. We've already covered this part, weren't you listening, we'll have to change that. Rule one, listen to everything the Doctor says. Because it might just save your life." The doctor pushed off the rail and jumped towards the control panel like an energised child. "So, Space and time, where'd you like to go?" Elara's brain went into overdrive.

"All of time and space?" she asked, trying to think. "Wait, what about work? Or my parents? I can't go, I can't just drop everything to run away with people I hardly know. Oh my god, what will my dad say if I told him I was going to go gallivanting with a man I met yesterday and his friends. He'd kill me. He'd kill you." The Doctor chuckled.

"It's nice to see I'm not the only one who rambles. Now you don't have a problem, see this is my TARDIS, time and relative dimensions in space, my time machine. I can get you back for whatever time you need to be, ain't that right Pond?" Amy chuckled as she walked over to stand next to Elara.

"Yeah, most of the time." The Doctor threw her a shocked look.

"What do you mean, 'most of the time'?" he asked, offense on his face, making Elara curious.

"Fourteen years." Amy said, pulling her lips into a smug smile. The Doctor crossed his arms over his chest and pouted again. Elara was finding their banter hilarious.

"That was once, you don't have to keep bringing it up. Besides it was the TARDIS's fault, I was breaking her in. It was only a little pop to the moon and back." The TARDIS groaned on protest at his accusation. "Sorry dear." He muttered, knowing what the TARDIS was like when he ticked her off. He'd find the pool placed just on the inside of his bedroom door so he'd fall in as soon as he'd open the door. She'd done that when he'd, accidentally, rewired the pool to the ceiling; she'd had a hell of a time trying to keep all the water from falling onto the library selves. After three hours she'd taken matters into her own hands.

"That's it, blame the wheels. Typical male, blaming the tools." Amy muttered causing Elara to break out in giggles, she couldn't hold it any longer.

"What's this? Pick on the Doctor day." He grumbled, flicking buttons and pulling knobs. "Now come on. Pick somewhere." The doctor was getting impatient. He liked showing off, he always has, he couldn't help it. That was one of the reasons he always had companions, because he couldn't show off and be brilliant to just himself, they'd be no-one to be impressed.

"I don't know. Somewhere mind blowing." Elara said, skipping up to the Doctor at the control panel and randomly flicking a red switch. The Doctor's hands froze as he stared at her, his eyes as wide as the saucers. Elara, in fear she'd done something wrong, took a step away from the panel.

"How did you know which one to press?" The Doctor asked, watching her curiously.

"I don't know, I just flicked it." Elara said in defence. Had she flicked the right one? Wow, that's weird, she thought. The Doctor hummed quietly to himself as his mind ran wild. Coincidence, it had to be. Yes, he told himself, coincidence. It was the only explanation.

After pressing a few more buttons, the Doctor ran to the door, flinging open the doors dramatically to reveal a gorgeous green forest. Elara felt the overwhelming urge to barge past the Doctor and just explore immediately.

"Welcome to Planeta pozharnykh fey." The doctor announced.

"Planet of the fire fairies?" Elara asked, easily translating the Russian. She'd gotten bored one summer and tried to teaches herself using the internet and a translate dictionary. "Why is it named in Russian if we're out of space?" Elara asked curiously as she took her first step out of the TARDIS, the doctor following her closely.

She slowly span in a circle as she took in the surroundings. It was truly amazing; it was exactly how she'd imagined the rain forest to be like. So green and vast. She was pretty sure that she wasn't on earth but the marvellous shapes of the trees. Unlike earth trees, these trees had a kind of orange bark that make up the trunk of the tree, which were twisted like a pigtail. Stepping next one, she estimated they were a good four houses high. Spectacular, she thought.

"The Russian's were the first to discover it in 2051 so they thought finders keepers and staked claim on earth." The doctor explained as he shoved his hands into his pockets, gazing up at the red sky.

"But why fire fairies?" Rory asked as he and Amy caught up with the Doctor and Elara.

As if Rory had jinxed it, they heard a cluster of high pitched giggling. Curious, they looked in every direction, fear slowly sinking into their stomachs. It wasn't a cute giggle they'd heard but a menacing one.

Squinting his eyes in hopes to be able to see the tops of the trees, the Doctor noticed what looked like large bird nests; a mix of twigs and leave piled together to make some sort of bed. It was nearly impossible to be sure but he was certain he'd seen something duck from the rim.

"Okay, time to leave." He said determined. It was Elara's first adventure in the TARDIS and he'd be damned if there was a chance he'd be harm or even killed. Elara was startled out of her exploration by his words, feeling sadness flood through her.

"Why! We've only just got here!" she complained, sticking out her bottom lip to see if she could win him over like she had done so many times with her dad. The Doctor seemed to waver for a tiny second, barely noticeable if she hadn't of been watching him so closely.

"I'm not going to let you get hurt. Now come on." The Doctor made his way towards her, clasping her warm hand in his as he began to drag her towards the TARDIS.

"Erm, Doctor?" Amy called from behind then. The Doctor sighed exasperated.

"Not you 'n all, Pond, I'm very disappointed. You should know better…" The Doctor stopped his rant as he turned to see a small yellow woman, no bigger than a third of himself.

Her hair was as orange as fire, even more orange than Amy, the Doctor thought with a smile. She wore a green dress obviously made from leaves that complimented her hair perfectly. The only thing the doctor found unnerving about the woman was her blood red eyes. He had to admit though, the wings kind of counter acted the scary eyes. Who could be scared of a fairy? The Doctor thought.

"Oh. Hello? We were just visiting but we'll be leaving now." The Doctor said, ushering Amy and Rory towards him with his hands. Elara rolled her eyes and chuckled at his actions as it looked like he was flapping around nervously. No wonder Rory and Amy didn't move an inch.

"Come on!" The Doctor hissed lowly. The fire fairy giggled and shook her head at the doctor's words before moving slowly closer. Dramatically, it opened its mouth wide with a pop before releasing a small ball of fire. It came hurtling towards the Doctor and Elara, narrowly missing his boot clad feet.

"On second's thought. RUN!" he cried as they all turned and ran as fast as they could to the TARDIS. Rory making it just in time before a small clawed hand could grab the back of his shirt. The TARDIS door slammed shut behind him, a bang sounding quickly after.

"So is this a common occurrence then? Running from alien danger." Elara asked breathlessly as she leant against a railing surrounding the control panel.

"Nah, sometimes we save the day." The doctor replied, a large smile on his face. He surely enjoyed getting into trouble, she thought.


End file.
